The amount of irony in the air could not have been higher when Romain Grosjean’s No. 2 Renault spun and hit the wall at Turn 17 in Singapore on Friday. The Frenchman incredibly collided with the same piece of concrete which had been struck by Nelson Piquet last year in what became the ‘Crashgate’ scandal.

With Renault having lost title sponsor ING, both cars circulated the Marina Bay circuit with plain ‘Renault’ wording in black text on their sidepods, engine covers and rear wings on Friday. Although Grosjean’s accident was just that and nothing more sinister, the Frenchman’s spin was no doubt bordering on abnormal.

"Today was my first experience of the Singapore circuit," he said later. “Unfortunately, I made a small error in the first session which cost me a lot of time."